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On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States dropped a huge bomb by releasing a newly declassified document pertaining to logistical support given to two of the Saudi hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks.
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The first investigative record disclosed since President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of materials that for years have remained out of public view, the document summarises an FBI interview back in 2015 with a man who had frequent contact with Saudi nationals in the U.S. who provided support to the first hijackers to arrive in the U.S. in the run-up to those attacks.
Having been pressured to declassify the records, Biden last week finally ordered the Justice Department and other agencies to conduct a declassification review and release as many documents as possible over the coming 6 months.
But only hours after the Bidens visited New York, rural Pennsylvania and northern Virginia to attend September 11th memorials was the heavily redacted document released.
In an effort to end unfounded allegations the Saudi government orchestrated the attacks, the Saudi Embassy in Washington was in favour of fully declassifying all the records.
Victims' relatives cheered the document's release, describing it as a significant step in their effort to connect the dots.
The formerly secret trove of documents are being released at a politically delicate time for both the United States and Saudi Arabia, two nations that have forged a strategic yet difficult alliance, particularly on counterterrorism matters.
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